Sound Advice

Monthly Archives: February 2016

Hearing Loss Prevention Trifecta

Custom Protect Ear is proud to be featured in industry related articles applicable to hearing loss and hearing protection. Editors have been focusing on the Hearing Loss Prevention Trifecta: Fit, Comfort, and Communication.

Summary of Articles:

Hearing protectors help combat hearing loss, improve compliance

Effective hearing protection should be comfortable, effective, and yet still enable people to talk to one another. Custom Protect Ear’s hearing protection devices are made of a medical-grade silicone, and they are designed to be soft and flexible. The advantage of the softer devices is better comfort and function. They change shape slightly as the wearer ’s ear canal changes shape when talking or chewing, thereby continuing to seal during those activities….

Custom Protect Ear has been featured in the following publications, click on logo to read full article:

Oil and Gas workers suffering from hearing loss

It is no secret what is happening in the oil and gas sector with all the cut backs and downsizing. The oil and gas sector has seen 100,000 job at the end of 2015, including 40,000 direct jobs, as a combination of policy uncertainties and low crude oil prices decimates the sector.

But that is not all we are seeing or hearing from the Oil and Gas sector……

According to Worksafe BC Oil and gas workers suffering hearing loss at double the rate of other noisy industries. Over one third show signs of hearing loss according to WorkSafeBC.

Drilling and pipeline work is noisy business and according to a new report it’s taking an alarming toll on the hearing of workers in B.C.’s gas and oil industry.

In a bulletin WorkSafeBC says those oil and gas patch workers are experiencing noise-induced hearing loss at a rate of 33 per cent, over twice the rate of workers in other noisy jobs.

“It raises a few alarm bells,” said Budd Phillips, regional prevention manager with WorkSafeBC in Fort St. John. “Approximately one-third of workers were starting to show signs of noise induced hearing loss.”

WorkSafe doesn’t know if ear protection is absent, improperly used, or just inadequate for all the noise. But Phillips says companies need to do a better job making sure their employees are protected. Workers often don’t use the ear protection they are given, said Art Jarvis of Energy Services B.C. — which speaks for 1,600 companies working in B.C.’s gas patch.

“Definitely if you’re working beside a frac crew with screaming engines, that’s a noisy location,” said Jarvis.

The report is based on tests conducted in 2014 and notes that young workers are most likely to forego hearing protection devices entirely, with 27 per cent of those under-21 reporting they didn’t use hearing protection. WorkSafeBC regulations requires that employers provide workers with CSA rated hearing protection and test them annually when workplace noise exceeds a certain exposure limit. Only 15 per cent of oil and gas workers were tested in 2014.

In times of changing economy and declining high prices sector, it is very important that companies and workers take the extra precautions to ensure they are compliant with safety standards. Today workers are forced to consider job diversification, so in doing so it is important to make sure your senses are in tact.